How Revolutionary Was The American Revolution Essay

In May of 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, which made many fear of being put out of business by the British East India Company. Therefore, the colonist united against it. Tea agents in New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston rejected shipments, but governor Hutchinson allowed three arriving ships to deposit their cargo in Boston. Several mass meetings were held to demand that the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver be sent back with the duty unpaid. On the 16th of December a meeting at Old South Church was governor Hutchinson's final refusal, so that night a group of unknown men boarded the

They also thought that if they bought the tea from the British that they would put even more taxes on goods. Some colonists thought that this was wrong and they wouldn’t follow the rules, and didn’t pay the tax, and many planned to boycott the tea. The British Parliament found this out from and repealed all the former taxes on everything except their tea. This enraged the colonists, particularly members of the sons of liberty, which decided to take action.

The new plan actually lowered the price of Tea but many American's knew that by going along with the low prices of tea, they were conceding that Britain had authority to levy taxes on them. The Dartmouth was a ship that had sailed to Boston harbor carrying shipments of Tea. The colony agreed not to pay the duty and hoped the ship would just sail back to England. However British law prohibited a ship to return unless duties had been paid on its cargo, even if the cargo was not unloaded. A town meeting was called by Adams. The deadline was coming for payment of duties and the colony had no intent to pay. The membership voted to send Captain Rotch to the Governor house and request the ship be able to leave without payment of duties. After many hours Rotch returned and stated the governor refused his request. Adams committee of correspondence had rallied up much support from colonists all over for the resistance movement and support for revolution was as high as it had been. Adams went “All in”. He stood before the crowd and yelled, “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!”. The crowd roared in support and at this signal several hundred Sons of Liberty disguised as Narragansett Indians, boarded the Dartmouth and other ships carrying tea and began dumping it overboard into the water. (Irvin, 109). Adams had managed to rally up Americans and get them enraged at something that would have actually

The relationship with mother England and the English colonies was sitting on thin ice. King George had war Debt with the victory of the French and Indian War. Wanting to gain back money he started to tax’s the goods coming into the colonies harbors. On May 10th, 1773, King George and the parliament had passed the Tea Act.

At this time Americas drank about 1.2 million pounds of tea each year. On the night of The Boston Tea Party three ships had arrived. Each ship contained more than one hundred chests of British tea. The Sons of Liberty threw these chests overboard. The Colonist didn’t even destroy the ship, they were simply making a point that the tax is bad. These ships however were built and owned by the Americans.

Before their arrival, most of the colonies had become aware of the act that had been imposed and resolved to reject any tea shipments from the East India Company, refusing all ships to come inland — all except for Boston. In late November, three shiploads of tea arrived at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston harbour. The Dartmouth arriving first was prevented from being unloaded by a man by the name of Samuel Adams. Adams was the leader of the Sons of Liberty, a group of men united to resist new taxation. It was only a few days later when two more ships arrived: Eleanor and Beaver. Upon their arrival, the colonists held a meeting at the Old South Meetinghouse determining that the ships should be released without any payment of duty. Thomas Hutchinson, the Royal Governor, heard about the colonists meeting and immediately refused the ships to leave, insisting that the taxes must be paid. This greatly infuriated the colonists and that evening, they planned to retaliate. On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams led a group of colonists who disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians. This group of men, the Sons of Liberty, consisted of artisans, craftsmen and many others who were determined to defend their rights against the British. The masked-men “boarded the three British ships and dumped over three-hundred and forty-two chests of tea into the Boston

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship; while those in other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt as made to resist us. We then quietly retired to our several places of residence, without any conversation with each other or taking any measure to discover who were our associates.

The original event took place on November 18th, 1773, the ships arrived. Announcements were posted to organize a meeting among the citizens and the governor called the Committee of Correspondence. They wanted him to summon the ships back to Britain. When he didn't accept, a bunch of men, hidden as Indians, went and attacked towards the harbor, intending to throw the tea into the bay. They became three groups, each of them with one leader. Next, they made the captain and his crew get down below, they took all the boxes of tea, opened them and tossed them overboard. Even some members of the crew assisted them to destroy the tea. A big crowd was in the harbor, some of them even tried to keep some of the tea. Entirely they destroyed 340 chests.

On December 16, 1773 a group of men decided to dress up as Native Americans and had three ships of tea go to the Boston Harbor. These men that were dressed as Native Americans said they were part of the Hewes tribe and later that day they gathered a couple other people and destroyed 342 chests of tea. When the word was spread out some of the colonists were happy and began to believe the British would have a different perspective towards the colonist and to see them stronger. But others had their own opinion where them destroying the barrels wasn’t the best way to have the tax debate settled even though some of the colonists offered to money to pay for the damage but the British refused to accept.

In the weeks before this event, in Philadelphia and New York people forced tea bearing ships back to England. Many things like this was happening all around as in Annapolis and Maryland the town people burned both cargo and vessels. In the history book " The American Pageant" in chapter 7 it says that the people of Maryland and Annapolis proclaimed " liberty and independence or death in pursuit of it". While in Charleston, South Carolina officials seized the tea for nonpayment, only in Boston did the British refuse to cowed. The Governor refused to let the Sons of Liberty to go against the law, in order for him to do so he ordered the ships not too clear. The three British ships that were docked was called the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver. The Boston people disguised themselves as Indians, boarded the docked ships and began to smash open 342 chests of tea and dump it in the Atlantic Ocean, this equalled up to 90,000 pounds of tea which is worth around a million dollars in today's money. Sarah Bradlee was known as the “Mother of The Boston Tea Party” because she came up with the Indian disguise idea. In "The Americas" it states " John Andrews an onlooker, wrote a letter on December 18, 1773 describing what happened". It's said that the intersection of congress and Purchase Streets in Boston's is the location of this event. This event will be well a known event of The American Revolutionary

Last night on December 16, a huge disaster occurred in the Boston Harbor. Three British ships, loaded with tea, sailed into the Harbor yesterday night. As the tea sat in the boat, the Sons of Liberty started to make their plan. Later that night, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty called a meeting at the Old South Meetinghouse. All the men tried to convince the governor to send the boats out of the Harbor, the governor refused. His actions caused the men to peruse their idea. The Sons disguised colonists as Indians. After that, the angry colonists quietly headed towards the Harbor. Each colonist had one thing in mind, TEA! As the men got on the ship, they started cracking open the boxes of tea and began throwing it into the British Harbor.

In Boston, be that as it may, the regal senator Thomas Hutchinson resolved to maintain the law and kept up that three arriving ships, the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver, ought to be permitted to store their cargoes and that suitable obligations ought to be regarded. "On the night of Dec. 16, 1773, a gathering of around 60 men, energized by an extensive horde of Bostonians, wore covers and Indian hats, walked to Griffin's wharf, boarded the boats, and dumped the tea mid-sections, esteemed at ?18,000, into the water" (Britannica

On December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams led the Sons Of Liberty, down the Town Hall, raving about the taxes of tea. Afterwards, he and about 50 others, decided to dress up like natives, and dock 3 nearby ships. “... he cracked open the tea chests with their tomahawks, and then proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea leaves into the harbor.”

Andrews, a selectman of Boston, described the event in Boston on December 16, 1773. Days prior to the sixteenth, citizens from the county and neighboring towns, held mass meetings for the purpose of discussing what measures needed to be taken regarding the landing of the tea. Stubborn consignees in New York and Philadelphia refused to approve the reshipment of tea, but Thomas Hutchinson Governor of Boston refused to concede. On December 16, a Thursday morning a mass meeting was held in the Old South Meeting House, where Hutchinson would give a final answer. The committee informed the meeting, Hutchinson’s answer “consistent with the rules of government and his duty to the King he could not grant one without they produced a previous clearance from the office” and immediately the meeting was dissolved. That same evening Samuel Adams and friends, dressed as Indians from Narragansett, gathered upon Fort Hill and proceeded to Griffin’s Wharf, have they boarded ships Hall, Bruce, and Coffin. By nine o’clock that evening, they had destroyed ten thousand pounds of East India Company’s tea.

These acts had been around for a long time and caused little problems. They often benefited from these acts because although they had to buy from England, it was the most advanced industrial country and could often offer the best prices. The first tax to cause trouble in the colonies was the Sugar Act followed closely by the Stamp Act. The Sugar Act was truly just a restatement of old customs laws in an effort to raise money. The Stamp Act was a tax in which anything formally written or printed would have to be on specially stamped paper which was shipped from London. The colonists would soon pay taxes "at every stage of a lawsuit, that diplomas and deeds, almanacs and advertisements, bills and bonds, customs papers and newspapers, even dice and cards, would all be charged," (Morgan 19). The colonists reacted very violently to these taxes. They protested and boycotted throughout the nation and the British Parliament soon repealed the tax. Radicals began to proclaim the fact that there should be no taxation without representation. This meant that colonists should be represented in Parliament if they were going to be taxed by them. The British stated that every member of the Parliament was there to represent the whole Empire, not just the electors he represented. Therefore, the Americans would have no representation in Parliament. In 1773 the British decided to tax tea. They granted the British East India Company to ship their goods